Source & Credit: The News | Editorial
Another day in hell | February 6, 2010
Karachi has been through a day in hell. The attack on a busload of Shia mourners in Karachi, as they were travelling to join a procession marking the anniversary of the 40th day after the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, was followed just hours later by yet another powerful blast outside the Emergency Department at Jinnah Hospital where the victims had been taken. The toll in the aftermath was at least 25 dead. Twelve of these died in the suicide attack on the bus. Dozens have been injured. The figure for the dead could climb as the chaos and panic begin to clear.
This was obviously an intricately planned attack. The evil of the minds that conceived it is almost impossible to imagine. An ordinary person cannot even think about targeting people taken to hospital following a bombing. The attackers rank among the truly wicked – lacking in morality, in conscience, in humanity. Ambulance drivers, aid workers, media personnel and possibly medical staff were among those injured. Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi himself escaped only narrowly.
In the country’s largest city, the blasts have wreaked havoc. Security measures have been insufficient to prevent the terrorists from striking twice. This is despite high security enforced in the city which has seen violence of various kinds over the past few weeks. Despite the effort of authorities and Shia community leaders there is a risk that the anger of people will spill over. The attack shows that sectarian killers in the country are determined to inflict havoc.
It is an awful reminder of the hatred that lives in our midst. It is also a warning. For many years now, despite intense security, we have failed to prevent such attacks on minority sects. The extensive security put in place on such occasions – as it was in Karachi on Friday – can never be enough to prevent people who are determined to kill, sometimes at the cost of their own lives. The other measures needed to prevent such tragic, needless deaths have been ignored for far too many years. Even now there is no systematic effort to fight the hatred that flows like bile through the veins of our country and causes blood to spill.
There is now absolutely no time to lose. Somehow we need to rediscover the far more harmonious sectarian situation that existed in the decades of the past. Once, the majority sect erected stands offering milk to mourners. Some are still put up today. But there are now also those who plant bombs and set out to kill, to maim, to inflict suffering.
To eradicate these elements we need an immediate assessment of the way in which so much irrational animosity between different groups of Muslims has been born; and of why groups that aim to create havoc on days of immense significance to all believers in Islam have come up. Till this happens, there will be more death and destruction. As a nation, we simply cannot afford this. A strategy needs to be put in place now to curb this violence before it consumes all that is good in our country.
Read original article here: Another day in hell
GOD bless pakistan.
ReplyDelete